Consolidation and Changes to the Dispute Resolution Service Policy & Procedure

The Dispute Resolution Service (DRS) is Nominet’s award winning mediation based process for resolving disputes between parties over the registration or use of .UK domain names. The DRS aims to provide a clear, quick and cost-effective process outside of the formal court system which facilitates an amicable resolution between the parties where possible, and which is accessible and fair to both those complaining and domain name registrants.

While the DRS has a proven track record of success, its governing procedures had not been reviewed since 2008 and for historic reasons were set out in two separate documents leaving scope for unnecessary duplication and complexity.

Late in 2015, therefore, we conducted a review of the documents and in February 2016 proposed changes to consolidate them. Stakeholders were invited to provide feedback on the proposed changes between 10 February and 24 March 2016. We would like to thank all those who submitted a response.